Metallic railway-tie.



S. R. KEIN.

METALLIC RAILWAY TIE.

APYLIQATION FILED'MM 29, 190s.

latentex. Get. 2'?, 1908.

Hw@ N 71 ,f

UNITED STATES SAMUEL R. KEIM, OF JOHNSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

METALLIC RAILWAY-TIE Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 27, 1.908;

Application led May 29, 1908. Serial No. 4:35682.`

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL KEIM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Johnstown, in the county of Cambria and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvements in Metallic Rail- Way-Ties, of which the'following is a specitlcation.

My present invention relates to improvements in railway cross-ties of the type composed essentially7 of metal to serve 'as a substitute for the usual .wooden tie, and it has for its object primarily to provide a simple, relatively inexpensive and improved tie of this character which may be 'readily and cheaply constructed preferably of rolled metal which possesses the requisite strength. and cheapness. and which is provided with devices which in practice serve to etfectually lock the rails thereto, the rail locking devices being such that the proper gage of the rails is rigidly maintained by means ot a central locking Vmember which extends lie tween them, and any loosening tendency ot the rails resulting from wear or other causes may be taken up, or compensated for by means oi outer adjustable locking members.

Another object ot the invention is to pro vide a railway tie of this character embodying a central locking member which spans the space between the two rails ,and is provided with means Jfor drawing it downwardly to lock the rails and a pair of outer locking members which are provided with means for drawing them in a direction both downwardly and inwardly so as to tasten the rail down and also to lock it firmly in coperative relation with the central locking member.

Further objects oi th invention are to provide means for yieldingly supporting the rails upon the tie whereby vibrations or noise caused by passing trains is minimized and also to improve the general construction of the tie whereby the same is vclosed at 'tlc top so as to not render it dangerous to the employees, and also to provide such a construction wherein the parte. may be readily relnoved or adjusted as occasion may require.

'Io these and other ends, thev invention consists in cert-ain improvements, and combinations and arrangements .of parts` all as will be hereinafter more tully described, the novel features being pointed ont particularly in the claims aty the end of the specification.

Iii the accompanying drawing z-Figure l is a perspective view of a section of a railway equipped with ties constructed in accordance with my present invention, the outer locking member of one of the ties be ing shown removed;.Fig. 2 represents an end elevation of a section of the railway, a portion of the foremost tie being broken away so as to show themeans for supporting and locking one of the rails in proper position; Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view of one end of a tie, the rail and tie being shown in plan; and Fig. 4 represents a transverse section of the tie on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

` Similar parts are designated by the same reference characters in the several Views.

Railway ties constructed in laccordance with my present invention are capable of use generally in connection with railways of various kinds, and itI will be understood, of course, that inl applying the ties to railways of dilerent gages, the relative proportion of the parts will be correspondingly varied. It will also be understood that I have shown in the drawing onespeciic embodiment of the invention, and that the invention is not necessarily so limited, as certain changes in the specific construction of the parts or the relative arrangement thereof may be made in order that the invention may be applied to the best advantage in each particular case.

In the present instance, the tie comprises a main or body member l which is preferably .tormed of sheet metal rolled into a channel form, the intermediate portion of the channel being adapted to rest flatwise upon the bed of the track, and the longitudinal 'langes 2 and 3 extend upwardly, the main or body section just described being of such a length as to extend between. the rails and to project a suitable `distance at the oppor4 c sides thereof. Y

' In order to vicldingly support the rails upon the tie so as to ease or absorb vibration and thus minimize wear and noise caused by the motion ot' the rolling stock over the rails,

are rigidly maintained at the proper gage by means of a central locking member and a pair of cooperating outer locking members 6 and 7. These locking members are also formed preferably of sheet metal, such as steel, rolled into channel form, these niembers being` arranged in reverse relation to the channel-shaped base member, and the width between the longitudinal flanges thereof is `such as to enable these members to closely 'dt between the corresponding flanges of the base member. These members may be cheaply made by shearing or otherwise severing'se'ctions from a strip of channelshaped metal, the central locking member having its vertical flanges undercut 0r cut away at a point inwardly from the end of the member so as to form a pair of outwardlyl projecting or overhanging locking jaws 8 and 9, and this locking member is of' such a length thatvwhen its locking jaws en gage the base flanges of the two rails, the latter will be positively spaced at the proper wage, and this central locking member is drawn into locking. engagement with the two rails by means of a suitable number of wedges, a pair of wedges 10 and l1 being shown in the present instance which are arranged toward the respective ends of the central locking member, these wedges each passing through registering openings l2 and 13' formed respectively in the longitudinal flanges of the base and locking members so that as the wedges are driven in, they will drawv the member downwardly into firm engagement with the rail and .in locked relaF tion to the base. In order to prevent loosening of those wedges, a Cotter pin or other locking device la is preferably passed through an appropriate aperture formed in the smaller end of the wedge.

The two Outer locking'members are substantially duplicates, each having theimier i ends of its vertical flanges undercut to form an overhanging jaw l5 which is adapted to engage over the outer side of the base flange of the rail. These outer locking members are drawn into engagement withthe respecN tive rails by a diagonal movement in a direction both downwardly. and inwardly, and' any appropriate devices may be employed for accomplishing this result. ln the present instance, pairs Aof diagonally-arranged apertures or slots 16 are formed in the opposite flanges of each outer locking member and are arranged to register with corre spondingly inclined apertures or slots ,17 `formed in the flanges of the base member. rfhe wedges 18 are adapted to enter these registering apertures and, when 'driven into position, will firmly draw the respective locking member into engagei'nent with the 'ail in a direction that will operate to draw the rail downwardly against the supporting block and also clamp the same against the corresponding end of the central locking member so that lateral shitting of the rail either vertically or horizontally is positively prevented.

It will be understood, of course, that while I have shown a certain number of locking wedges for drawing the respective locking members into engagement with the rail, the invention is not necessarily limited in this respect, as certain of.' these wedges may be omitted, or, additional ones employed as may be 'founddesirable or necessary. The rail supporting block 4, it will be observed, is held from shifting longitudinally of' the tie by means of the \vedges 10 and 18 between which it is interposed, although should this block becomeworn, it may be readily removed and another `substituted, by first unlocking-the corresponding outer locking member and ,removing it, it being unnecessary to even disturb the rail in removing and replacing these supporting blocks. By employing wedges for drawing the respective locking members into engagement with the rail, it will be obvious that any wear liable top-occur by reason of the passage ofthe ytrains over the rails may be readily taken up or compensated for by merely driving in the wedges further and appropriately fitting the eotter pin togprevent their working loose.

Railway ties constructed in accordance with my present inventioinare composed of a few parts which arerelatively simple in construction and which may be manufactured cheaply from rolled metal, metal of channel form being generally preferable because of its stiffness which renders the tie rigid.4 longitudinally, and moreover, by constructing the base member and the locking members'both of channel form arranged in reverse relation and fitting one Within the other, the locking membens serve not only to retain the rail in cooperative relation with the tie, but they also close the upper side of the tie so that no openings are formed inA which the foot of an employee might c'atch. llie use of rolled metal also renders lthe liability of breakage or fracture of the ti'e or, they may be readily removed and re 'placed 11i substituting a new rail supporting block for a'worn one.

A l claim as my invention :M i

l. A railway cross tie comprising a base member of channel form, and a rail locking and spacing member of channel form fitted into the base member to close the opening be-vtween its flanges and provided with means ste in .ner of channel form, e central locking eee,

for looking' smid member in cooperative relnl lion lo both rails und baise member.

A railway Gross tie "omprising n base i member of channel form having;- its longitndinel flanges nptnrmi-d, n set ot' rail locking l members of Channel form arranged in inverted relation to the buse member and han# ing; their flanges :irrzn'iged to eoiipernte with l those el? the bese member, sind means eo opervtingg with the re il locking members to drew tnem into ooneretive relation with the mils nml the brise member.

i1. Arine'tallierail 'myieeomgnising:ibase member. :i central looking ineml'wr of :i length snliirien? to spun the epm-e between the rails :ineV engage the mee flanges thereof, :i pair of omer mil loel:l members mounted on the buse inen'iber end :irlnpted lo engage with 'the enter sides` olf the rnils` :and menns for seunringzjihe loathing members in engzigenwnt with the rzii1f ross tie comprising; e brise f L, :i rent locking member adapted to span the nee berweeii the rails :ind hnv nig jaws it ite ends to nonni-rete with the hns-,e llene s oi the respoetive rails, means .l Ytor Ern'wing sind centi-:1l loelring n'iemhei.

-fienvirwurdly .into eneiigenient with the rails7 'i 1i-:nr of outer looking' members having paws railway Cross tie comprising 'zi bese :einher also of channel form and arranged in inverted relation within the vertical ,s ot the member` central look er being provided with rail engagi; ing' jews at its opposite ends, wedges cooperating with the flanges of the base meinber and eentrzil locking member respectively for drawingthe letter downwardly into locking engagement with the rails` a pair of outer looking members also of channel form :airing their flanges engaging' within the flanges olz the base member, the flanges of the enter looking` members and the flanges of the base member being provided with diagonally arranged wedge openings,W and wedges nl ranged to eoperate with said openings to draw the outer lookingmembers into en gagement with the respectivo rails by diagonal movements both inwardly and downwirdly.

G. A railway cross tie Comprising` ny bese member, :1 Central. looking member fitting the base member and provided with transverse wedges cooperating lwith its ends to draw it into engagement with the respective rails, e pair of outer rail looking' members having jews to engage the outer sides of the respee .ive rails, removable wedges coperating with the brise member and the respective outer looking members for drawing the latter into engagement with the respective rails, and a, yielding rail supporting block resting upon the buse member and having its ends arranged to engage the transverse wedges of thel looking members to prevent displace-- ment of the bloolein either direction longitudinally of the tie.

En testimony whereof l have hereunto set lmy hand in presence of two subscribing wit nesses.

SABUEL R. KEIM.

llfi tnesses r MYRTLE R. Jo-ms'ron VVT. F. HAMMER. 

